Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

LOCHGOILHEAD
Crinan Canal, which passes witliin J mile of the town,
and to Ardrishaig where the canal joins Loch Fyne,
Lochgilphead shares in the growing trade of the AVest
Highlands, to which it owes its rise from a small fishing
village to a prosperous well built town, lighted with
gas and plentifully supplied with water. In the sum-
mer it may be easily reached by the ' swift ' steamers,
and in winter there is regular communication, daily
with Glasgow and twice a week with Inverness, Skye,
Oban, etc. The main road from CampbeltoAvn to Oban
passes through it, and it is also on the route of the
Loch Awe and Eilmartin coaches. Lochgilphead has a
post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance,
and telegraph departments, branches of the Clydesdale
and Union Banks, offices or agencies of 13 insurance
companies, and five good inns. The weaving of
woollen cloth is carried on in two factories, and dyeing
is also engaged in. There is a considerable fishing
population. Horse markets are held on the third
Thursday of March, and on the second Thursday after
the fourth Thursday in November. A cattle market
is held on the Wednesday fourteen days after the
KOmichael fair on the last "Wednesday in May. Loch-
gilphead contains the Argyll and Bute District Asylum
for the Insane, and the Combination poorhouse for the
parishes of Glassary, Eilmartin, Kilcalmonell, and North
and South Knapdale. The former was erected in 1862-64.
In 1SS3, the Lunacy Board for the counties of Argyll
and Bute decided to obtain more accommodation by
erecting a building apart from the Asylum, to be occu-
pied mainly by industrial patients. The new building
is 202 feet long and three stories high. It has accom-
modation for 120, and its cost was £11,000. The
fittings are of the most complete description, and the
arrangement of rooms, dormitories, bath-rooms, etc.,
excellent. The poorhouse has accommodation for 72
paupers. Places of worship are Lochgilphead parish
church (1827-28), a Free church (1843), a Baptist church
(1815), and Episcopal Christ Church, the last a Middle
Pointed edifice, containing some fine stained glass.
The government of Lochgilphead is carried on by a
senior and 2 junior magistrates, and 9 commissioners of
police. It is a police burgh. A sheriff court is held
four times in the year, and justice of the peace courts
each Wednesday after the first Sunday of every month.
There is a good-sized court-house. Connected with the
town may be mentioned the public reading-room,
mutual improvement association, a division of the
Argyll and Bute Volunteers, Artillery. The quoad
sacra parish of Lochgilphead included at one time
Ardrishaig, which is now a separate quiad sacra parish.
It is in the presbytery of Inveraray and synod of Argyll.
The following schools are in Lochgilpheid : Aird public,
Ardrishaig public, Lochgilphead public, and Ardrishaig
Episcopal, which, with respective accommodation for 50,
170, 325, and 114 scholars, had (1883) an average attend-
ance of 24, 126, 203, and 66, and grants of £38, 5s.,
£111, 3s., £185, 17s., and £56, 10s. Pop. of town (1861)
1674, (1871) 1642, (1881) 1489, of whom 711 were males ;
of quoad parish (1881) 2381, of whom 2271 were in Kil-
michael-Glassary parish, and 110 in South Knapdale. —
Ord. Siir., sh. 29, 1873.
LochgoUhead, a village and a parish in Cowal dis-
trict, Argyllshire. The village, at the head of salt-water
LochGoiL (6 miles x 2 to 6-Jfurl.), is 12 J miles SW
of Arrochar, by Glencroe ; Hi SE of Inveraray, by
Hell's Glen and St Catherine's Ferry ; and 19J NNW of
Greenock, by water. A peaceful little place, with its
lovely surroundings of wood and water, mountain and
glen, it communicates daily by coach with Inveraray,
by steamer with Greenock, and has a post office imder
Greenock, with money order, savings' bank, and tele-
graph departments, an hotel, a steamboat pier, and a
good many villas and pretty cottages.
The parish, containing also Cairxdow hamlet, com-
prises the ancient parishes of LochgoUhead and Kil-
morich, the former in the S, the latter in the N, and
down to 1649 comprehended Strachur besides. It is
bounded N by Glenorchy, H"E by Killin in Perthshire,
LOCH INDAL
E by Arrochar, SE by the upper lOJ miles of salt-water
Loch Long (j mile broad), SW by Kilmun, W by
Strachur, and NW by salt-water Loch Fyne and
Inveraray. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 19-
miles ; its breadth varies between 1 mile and 11 miles ;
and its area is llO^V square miles or 70,460J- acres, of
which 39,192J belong to the Loehgoilhead section, 191
are water, 6 tidal water, and 5677- foreshore. The
northern division, extending from the vicinity of Ben-
loy to the mountains which screen the northern side of
Glencroe, includes Ben Biri (3106 feet), Ben Ime (3318),
Ben Aethur (2891), and Glenfyne. The southern
division, extending 10 J miles down Loch Long and 5
down Looh Fyne, is intersected by Loch Goil, and in-
cludes Glencroe, Glenkinglas, Hell's Glen, Ben-an-
LocHAiN (2955 feet), Ben Bheula (2557), Ben Donich
(2774), Ben Loohain (2306), and Argyll'.s Bowling-
Green. In all twenty-seven summits have a height of
more than 2000 feet above sea-level, and the surface
everj'where is wildly mountainous and very rugged,
abounding in vast bare rocky masses, and in stupendous
cliffs and precipices. Caves, grottos, and natural vaults
are very numerous ; streams, rapid and romantic, but all
of short length of course, run to the several sea lochs ;
and four small lakes, well stored with trout, lie high up
among the hills. Considerable pendicles of land on the
coasts and in the glens are well cultivated and highly
embellished ; and a large aggregate of natural wood
clothes much of the upland tracts, especially on and
near the coasts, and charmingly hides or relieves the
savageness of the mountain wastes. Eruptive and
metamorpliic rocks predominate ; limestone has been
worked in several quarries ; at the head of Loch Fyne is
a vein of lead ore, said to be very rich in silver ; and
jasper, several kinds of spar, and some other interesting
minerals are found. The soil in the bottoms of some of
the glens is rich and fertile ; on patches of the coast
lands is light, sharp, and sandy ; in the high glens is
generally wet and spongy, partly a deep moss ; and on
the pastoral uplands is mostly thin, dry, and firm to the
tread of cattle. The chief antiquities, ARDKlNOL.iss,
Carrick, andDuNDAEAVE Castles, are noticed separately,
as also are the mansions of Ardgartan, Ardkinglass,
and Drimstnie. Four proprietors hold each an annual
value of £500 and upwards. Loehgoilhead is in the
presbytery of Argyll and the sjmod of Dunoon ; the
living is worth £280. The parish church, at Loeh-
goilhead vUlage, is an old building, with 305 sittings ;
a mission church, at Cairndow, has 258. There is also
a Free Church preaching station of Loehgoilhead ; and
two public schools, Kilmorich and Loehgoilhead, with
respective accommodation for 44 and 72 children, had
(1883) an average attendance of 34 and 73, and grants
of £45, 19s. and £70, 7s. Valuation (1860) £6305,
(1884) £10,963, 19s. 7d. Pop. (1801) 1145, (1831)
1196, (1861) 702, (1871) 766, (1881) 870, of whom 419
were Gaelic-speaking. — Ord. Sur., shs. 37, 38, 45, 46,
1871-76.
Lochinch Castle, the seat of the Earl of Stair, in Inch
parish, Wigtownshire, on the W side of Castle-Kennedy
Loch, 1§ mile N of Castle-Kennedy station, this being
2| miles E by S of Stranraer. Completed in 1867, it is
a stately Scottish Baronial edifice, with pepper-box
turrets, corbie-stepped gables, terraced gardens of singular
beauty, a splendid pinetum, etc. The present and tenth
Earl, since 1703, is John Hamilton Dalrymple (b. 1819;
sue. 1864) ; and the Stair famQy possesses 82,666 acres
in Wigtownshire and 13,827 in Edinburghshire, valued
at £43,510 and £10,782 per annum. — Ord. Sur., sh. 3,
1856. See also Castle- Kennedy, Oxenfoord, and
Bargany.
Lochindaal, a bay in Sleat parish, Isle of Skye, Inver-
ness-shire. It opens from the Sound of Sleat, opposite
the mouth of Loch Hourn ; washes most of the NE end
of the Sleat peninsula ; and is separated by an isthmus
of only i mile in breadth from the head of Loch Eishart.
Loch Indal, a sea loch in Islay island, Argyllshire.
Opening on the S between the Mull of Islay and the
Point of Rhynns, and penetrating 12 miles north-north-
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